There are rumours that General Mills has hired J.P. Morgan Chase to find a buyer for its Yoplait yogourt business in Canada and the United States.
It earlier sold its European business to Sodiaal.
General Mills is rumoured to be asking $2 billion for Yoplait.
General Mills and JPMorgan have declined to comment.
Shares of General Mills have fallen about 19 per cent over the past year to $71.04 on Friday, valuing the company at about $40 billion US.
Yoplait was started by a group of French dairy farmers in 1964 and struck a deal with General Mills in 1977.
In 2011, General Mills acquired a 51 per cent per cent stake worth $1.2 billion in Yoplait from private equity firm PAI Partners and French dairy cooperative Sodiaal. Sodiaal retained the remaining stake.
In 2021, General Mills sold the European operations of Yoplait to Sodiaal. At the time, the company said its U.S. and Canada yogurt operations generated a combined $1.4 billion in net sales for fiscal 2020.
Reuters news agency reports that General Mills sees the remaining yogurt assets as non-core in its current strategy as it faces tough competition from market leaders Chobani and Danone’s Dannon brand.
